


Food night

by akisaeko



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Awkward First Times, Bottom Levi (Shingeki no Kyojin), Drama, Drama & Romance, Fluff and Smut, Food Kink, M/M, Mild Smut, Psychological Drama, Romantic Fluff, Romantic Friendship, San Francisco Bay Area, Slow Burn, Top Eren Yeager
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-23
Updated: 2018-07-28
Packaged: 2019-06-15 02:39:54
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 7,926
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15403140
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/akisaeko/pseuds/akisaeko
Summary: Life isn't easy when Eren gets into a humble community college and shares a 2b1b apartment with a cleaning freak, Levi.





	1. The "Steak"holder

**Author's Note:**

> My original intention was writing bite-sized (really short stories like a tweet lol) ereri fluff/smut one-shots, but as I wrote, the content got extended wildly into an Alternate Universe of San Francisco Bay Area, where I had some memorable moments and ... lots of stories to tell but in the shell of my favorite characters in Attack on Titan. Hope you enjoy the story and let me know if you have similar situations in the costly living-standard as a nerdy SV resident. 
> 
> This story is ongoing and I'll try to update every other day or at least, once a week. It starts with some slow-burn-ish fluff but I promise smut will be there in 1-2 chapters. Stay tuned.

Eren has never thought about sharing an apartment in Redwood, where the rent could be as high as $3000 per month. Bay Area in California, after all. He’s not merely sharing an apartment with someone, but someone who’s already at work, 10 years maybe older than he is, and that person is an annoying cleaning freak, Levi.

“Oi, Eren! It’s Tuesday, so the kitchen is mine.”  
“...”  
“I’m going to put away your cutting board.”  
“... but, I have a friend coming over tonight.”  
“Friend? Since when you got friends? I thought you are so solitary that you have no choice but to share a flat with me.”

True. That damn hurts Eren's mind. It’s no longer his freshman year in Redwood, but he got no close friends, acquaintance still, but not worth inviting to a home party. 

Well, that wasn’t a lie, to be honest, Eren is undoubtedly going to have some friends. “Um… She’s Annie from the school fighting club.” Levi rolled his eyes hearing this, secretly claiming Eren was telling a lie because he might just be shy from admitting to dating a girl. “You can have her in your room then.” Sharp as usual, Levi’s tired of adolescence hormones.

The cooking utensil clashes when Eren place them into the sink. He blushes, not sure it’s because of Levi’s arrogance or the thought of having a girl in his room - He never has the gut to think about it. Girls to Eren are more like companions who enjoy nagging and complaining - Well, Mikasa, for example. Unlike others who look up to her as the top student in their high school, Eren takes his adopted sibling as a roadblock for him to try anything exciting. Rock-climbing? “Nope! Eren you are gonna break your legs.” Bicycling on the trails? “Eren, don’t you tell me you forgot to wear a helmet last time?” Hiking? “Eren, don’t go that far by yourself. Armin and I will come with you.” … Boxing? “Eren, let me be your coach.”

That’s Mikasa, unlike Annie, who acts more like a peer other than a mother. Speaking of mom, Eren would rather regret thinking of her. Not because of bad memory about herself, but it’s his dad who’s blamed. Born in a doctor’s family though, Eren’s mother passed away due to a fatal illness that even his father had no clue to deal with it. Worse still, instead of being at her side in her last minute, the ignorant man ran for a business trip in Germany and came back on the day of the funeral. Ever since then, Mikasa has taken up the role of being more than Eren’s elder sister, or a mom.

Eren had been living for more than five years with Mikasa before he moved out finding a stranger as a roommate. They went to the same high school, along with their childhood friend Armin Arlert, sharing every moment of school life with each other. Mikasa is too close to be his listener, but Armin is a more patient buddy. He is the glue for the two siblings when they fight each other. What Eren likes Armin more is that the smart guy answers nearly all the questions for Eren’s homework, while Mikasa keeps an eye on Eren - “No cheating on homework. Otherwise one day you will be caught cheating in an exam.” She is right. There was one time that Eren was almost expelled because of hiding a scroll of cheat sheet inside of his pen. Before that, Eren had some “trades” with his classmates who share the same terrible idea with him - Exchanging answers in the toilet by scratching some symbols on the stall doors. Every plan went smoothly except for one day, Eren ironically failed at a small trick.

Unlike the only close friends - Mikasa and Armin - he has, Eren regards himself as a rebel (even though in fact he sucks being a real rebel). Not just regarding academic performance, he had some mischief towards their neighbors, Hannes the hangover dude, for instance, got his lawn shaved in a pattern of turd overnight. The drunk man threw bottles of beer or, most of the time, toilet paper onto Eren’s rooftop. It took Mikasa a whole weekend to swipe them off, and no doubt she shut herself off towards for nearly one month. Great, Eren was quite happy about that. No talking is way better than hearing lectures from that mom-girl day and night.

Back to the reality, Eren is no longer a rebel at Levi’s presence. Somehow Mikasa thinks Eren had made quite a wise decision of having a grown-up man as his roommate. Even though, she clearly knows it was not a choice solely made by Eren.

About one year and a half ago, the siblings had a thought to pursue their school lives separately. Enrolling in one of the top 10 programs in North Cal, Mikasa set up her student loans and stuff, picking up stacks of reference books for her new accommodation in the campus. Going to attend a community college near Redwood, Eren started browsing and ticking some candidate apartment in the neighborhood. Not like Mikasa, the lower-ranked boy has no scholarship to cover most of his tuition, and thus he can afford no condo on his own. Well, how about Armin? He accepted an offer from a college on the east coast. Unfortunately, one, two, and no three here. No friend can share an apartment in an insanely high monthly rent with Eren. 

Levi wasn’t the only candidate for a roommate at that time. Even though Eren did not have many close friends during his high school, the young lad still looks qualified to be a good roommate who at least has no weird life habits like staining carpeting with pet excrement, or something smells really bad. He doesn’t smoke, simply Mikasa forbids him doing it by punching him on the face. He cooks occasionally, so no worries for beeping a smoke alarm. And most importantly, he has no interest in fooling around with girls - same reason with the first point. Mikasa-wise, Eren is such a mentally rebellious yet behaviorally good boy well kept away from anything inappropriate from the society. Invitations flooded in overnight after Eren posted the same brief ad on ten Facebook groups (He tried his best to collect as many groups as he could). There was a girl with a potato as avatar asking Eren if he minds doing a barbeque in the kitchen; A shy boy asked Eren if he was allergic to cats (He got three); A pale caucasian girl and her partner, a manly Asian lady, asked Eren if he was LGBTQ+ friendly (Eren said yes, but later he realized that he could not share the same bathroom with a couple); And then, Levi showed up.

At one time Levi was definitely not in their consideration. “He’s almost 30? I assume.” Mikasa frowned when checking up Levi’s profile until her eyes widened up, smiling, “This man, see, he’s new to Bay Area due to relocation at work.” “So what?” Eren mumbled, “He doesn’t look he’s 30. 25? I guess?” Maybe he’s an older guy in disguise using a profile image from his high school. However, Mikasa was simply carried away when noticing this stranger worked for a renowned tech company, which happened to be her dream company for the incoming summer internship. “Eren, he is a product manager! Isn’t it cool?” Well, it seems it’s more of a Mikasa’s decision other than his, and Eren’s used to that. “Hey sis, he is cool to you, but we are looking for a roommate for me.” Mikasa was not mad this time even though she felt reluctance from Eren’s grunting. The rebellious kid, for the first time, sounded not that aggressive when seeing a man entitled to a position such as Senior Product Manager at Mikasa’s dream company. On the contrary, Eren would never tell Mikasa that it was not Levi’s job title charmed him but his disposition - No bullshit and simply wrote “I’m Levi. Looking for a roommate to share a 2b1b apartment in Redwood.” with a floor plan attached. Luckily, the price in half looks not bad. $1100 per month is still within his budget, though Eren soon realized he even got to secure a part-time job.

Mikasa helped with Eren in communicating with her “idol” Levi, in decent voice and tone, proving Eren was “well-educated” just like her. A little bit upset to her, that Levi didn’t meet her expectation as an equally well-educated gentleman, he casually uses slang and even worse, a collection of cursing words when chatting about his work or lifestyle. “I regret, but at least, Levi is better than a potato girl or a lazy boy with three cats.” Mikasa quit that messenger app, staring at Eren. “Yeah, not bad. $1100 per month! At least I won’t eat a potato for the rest of my college life.” Eren presented a weird smile to his elder sister.

It’s almost 7 pm, 15 min before Eren’s “appointment” with Annie. As Eren puts back his humble cooking utensil, Levi sets things up on the kitchen table. Even though he works as a senior product manager, Levi manages his work-life balance well. “It’s my Steak-holder night as usual.” Levi enjoys making fun of his colleagues but in a non-offensive way. He’s been filled up with those stakeholders during the lengthy leadership meetings at his company as well as the cheap free-food offered daily. “Being a chef in my company must be deadly boring. No one can make this for me.” As he says, a piece of the fresh beef fillet is cut in half.

Eren can no longer resist the sizzling steak out of his bedroom. “Damn that old man!” He is quite excited but nervous right now, thinking of Annie’s smile when they exchanged social accounts… And what the hell there’s such a distraction twisting his empty stomach. He hasn’t had any dinner yet since he assumed that Levi would “lend” the kitchen for him, considering the socially awkward boy finally got a “date.” The worst truth is, Annie is late, and maybe, she will never show up tonight. 

7:20 pm. Eren sighed after a quick click on the side button of his phone. What a depressing moment seeing the phone screen shut down again. No more notification except for a presumably paragraph-long passage from Mikasa, starting with “So today in my Strategic Management class, the professor…” The sizzling sound is soon replaced by the soft chopping sound made by Levi the chef, adding some herb as the spice for his dishes. 

Two men share the kitchen based on days of a week. Levi is actually more generous than Eren expects. Except for Tuesday and Thursday, Eren owns the kitchen to prepare his dinner box for his part-time job in an Indian gift store on Castro street of Mountain View, almost half an hour away from where they live.

“Girls suck. I should not believe her, either.” The bedroom door creaks, here comes the starving lad Eren. “So you know what? She looked so normal when I added her on Snapchat right in front of her!” Eren nearly slams the door behind him as he shuffled into a pair of slippers.

“Is she the 5th girl that fails you?” Levi hisses. He just can’t hide that smiling face hearing a sad boy’s story. “Bet you are hungry as hell.”

What a bad punchline. Eren doesn’t think he’s that desperate craving for a romantic relationship with girls. Apparently, as he knows, he intends to prove a masculine side of himself to Mikasa, the girl with muscles.

Eren seems mad at Levi’s comments at the moment but soon his sad face shifts into a garden of blooming cherry blossoms. 

“Eren, so this half is yours.” 

Eren sniffs the freshly cooked steak with garlic sprinkled and butter melted on the top, thinking this old man is going to take over the kitchen from him forever.


	2. The stalker

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “You... A manager? No way! You look much younger in the photo.” A tall Caucasian man with nicely stylized blonde hair talked a little bit louder since he’s tipsy. “Man, you must be a new grad in disguise.” “I’m not lying, Erwin.” A familiar voice - Levi? They cross the street leaving Eren goggles his eyes, mind’s blank. It can’t be… but isn’t it the reason why Levi dresses up tonight? Eren, the clumsy kid, doesn’t overthink until he notices the taller guy gently places his hand on Levi’s waist… but Levi doesn’t reject him.

Ever since Levi takes over all the cooking for them, Eren’s dinner bento box gets stuffed with meals of all kinds. 

“Neh, edamame and potato salad as your side dish tonight.” The old man has the final touch on Eren’s dinner on Friday. Levi does look less annoying when he focuses on adding more colors to the chicken omelet he made for Eren.

“Hmm… Not bad but ugh... I still need to work on Friday night.” Eren says as he sealed the box, carefully putting it into his backpack.

“Wasn’t it your own choice?” Levi casts a cursory look at him, washing hands for about five minutes and - “We are running out of soap. I don’t trust another brand except for this one. Get some when you are on the way home.”

Eren sighs and opens his note app to scrabble some keywords. Not bad though, at least he can find an excuse to leave earlier today before the pharmacy closes. 

After two months, Eren still feels a distance between himself and this roommate. This is not bothering Eren but just makes him feel a little bit lonely. Sometimes for a college student like him, he needs more friends like Armin that he can spend the night with, or at least, having dinner together. Levi’s reason for not having dinner tonight is simple - he gets some after-work errand to run. Sounds quite old-school, isn’t it? As Eren thought, the old man put on a suit soon after he got everything tidy in the kitchen. Maybe he’s going to wear a tie. Oh, here he goes.

“Eren, you are running late for work today.”  
“Well… I can still Uber it.”  
“... What the hell are you staring at me? Any stain on my shirt?”  
“No, it looks… good.” Eren swallowed a word that almost burst out of his mouth. Levi dresses much more decent tonight. He’s in a gentleman’s suit (sadly, Mikasa’s favorite, Eren assumes)... And a violet bow tie with checkered pattern on it.  
“Me, or my suit?” To Eren’s surprise, Levi chuckles at his words. He rarely does that, but apparently, tonight he acts differently.  
“You in your suit of course. I’m running - Bye then!” Eren shuts the door as he notices a driver is coming over in 3 minutes. He doesn’t have a second thought until he regrets not clarify what’s going on with Levi’s Friday night-out plan.

Mantra - the gift store where I Eren works at is on the most, honestly the only, famous street in Mountain View. Since it’s Friday night, Castro street looks way crowded than usual. College students, young couples, women out for shopping and grannies come in and out of this store, without buying anything but staying for a while due to the exotic background music mixed with the mild incense. Eren doesn’t really care about his customers that much, he stands still in a corner, thinking about how good the chicken omelet tastes for his dinner and switches with another staff every 15 minutes. Eren’s glad the store owner never complains him having dinner outside of the store in case the customers might think he’s a poor kid gets punished by his parents, who might run this store. 

Across the street, on the opposite side of Mantra, there is an Asian-fusion fine-dining restaurant named Euphoria. The interior is dimly lit, and the outside dining area is decorated with fences surrounded by vines. Eren looks into the distance, eyes blurred after yawning. He’s wondering if he could ever have dinner sometime when the semester is over. Triple dollars signs appear on Google map as he checks out the cost of dining in Euphoria. He sighs, shoves his phone into a pocket, and walks out of Mantra after the shop owner’s permission. “I’d better get home early today. My roomy is sick.” Not really a lie - Eren needs to go a pharmacy after all.

Well, it’s time for heading over to that pharmacy. Levi’s picky about the brands for washing soap, laundry detergent, and all sorts of cleaning devices. Recently, he ordered a robotic vacuum cleaner which might arrive tomorrow. That’s unusual for a guy to be obsessed that much in doing chores! Eren thought, and he looked up towards to the street sign...

“You... A manager? No way! You look much younger in the photo.” A tall Caucasian man with nicely stylized blonde hair talked a little bit louder since he’s tipsy. “Man, you must be a new grad in disguise.” “I’m not lying, Erwin.” A familiar voice - Levi? They cross the street leaving Eren goggles his eyes, mind’s blank. It can’t be… but isn’t it the reason why Levi dresses up tonight? Eren, the clumsy kid, doesn’t overthink until he notices the taller guy gently places his hand on Levi’s waist… but Levi doesn’t reject him.

An after-work errand? Now Eren finds out who’s more skillful of telling a lie. He quickly picks up the hand soap and gets on the train heading home. However, Levi’s not back yet (As Eren expected). Eren doesn’t know if his mind starts getting stuffed with random junk - There is one moment his throat uncomfortably tightens thinking Levi’s late on Friday. “Guess I can dominate this bathroom for an hour-long shower.” He talks to no one but himself.

Sharing an apartment with a mysophobia isn’t easy. Morning is the worst. Levi takes a shower for an hour and spends half an hour on personal grooming. Eren has no choice but gets up way earlier than he can put up with, quickly finishing his morning routine before Levi steps into the bathroom for his hours-long private time. He knows Levi’s willing to prepare breakfast for both of them, but he just can’t wait for that long before the morning class starts. The weekend seems much better because Eren is entirely buying in those crispy waffles and tender bacon-n-egg made by Levi. Speaking of weekend…

Will Levi at least come home tonight so they can still have breakfast together?

More than 10 years older or more than him, Eren understands his new immigrant won’t be satisfied with hanging out with a kid. He needs his peers to spend a Friday night with, and of course, he needs romantic or any other type of feeling to enrich his busy but straightforward life as a product manager. No, actually Eren can’t understand. Why is that blonde dude? He’s good-looking but, haven’t they just met hours ago? Damn, why am I think about this? Eren leans on the wall, letting hot water splash on his damp hair and dreary shoulders.

The hot water fails to melt Eren’s freezing mind: Maybe I am jealous because even a newcomer to the country can have a friend other than me. Am I his friend? No. I’m just his roommate who cannot be shared private life with. Ironically, we dare share private space just because of cheaper monthly rent. 

That night, Eren has become determined for not seeking a 6th girl to be “friend” with. Maybe Mikasa’s right, he’s not that into girls. Seeing that blond guy touching Levi on the waist, Eren googled about anything comes to his mind and finally, he gets to know there is a dating app for people like Levi…

“...You look much younger in the photo” - That Erwin said this. Didn’t he? Eren wonders if he can find that profile picture of Levi in this app. At first, he has to sign up using a pseudo name… Hmm… How about...

“Stalking your roommate is bad.” Levi’s voice slips in from Eren’s back before the young boy steps out his zone of aggressiveness.

“Levi? When did you get back?” Thankfully, Levi doesn’t notice what’s going on in Eren’s phone. He looks a little bit angry just for seeing his Facebook album (created 5 years ago) opened on Eren’s laptop. Eren shivers a bit, but he manages to calm down in minutes.

“I was back 10 minutes ago. Did you take a long shower? Our bathroom is too steamy.”  
“10 minutes ago?”  
“So what? I have to wait it’s cleared up for my shower. Your fault, Eren.”  
“Where is he?” Ah, damn shouldn’t I? Eren’s so inexperienced in being not innocent. “- I mean! Them… the coworkers that you had activities with… By the way, how was your work?”  
Levi looks confused. He has never seen Eren asked many questions like this. This brat seems socially awkward as I expected.

“I was out with a friend from work, and we talked about a project that’s going to be launched by the end of this year.” Levi quickly finishes his answer and unpacks the newly bought hand soap. Eren’s surprised when seeing Levi throwing a string of “professional” words to him without blushing at all. 

“...”

“Guess you won’t be interested in my work. Will you?”  
“Yes, actually I do… Like, what does this friend look like?”  
“Look like? He’s also a product manager but one level upper than me. If you are interested in professional networking, I can make a quick introduction to you.”

“... What? Levi-san, I don’t mean that.” It sounds way too off the track. Eren has zero interest in securing a job as a freshman. He’s not Mikasa, who has already updated her LinkedIn profile as “Available for a new opportunity.” Not everyone is getting a degree in Information Management or Computer Science, anyway.

“I see. You care too much for your sister then.” Levi smiled. Good and bad - He had no idea about all the shit going on in Eren’s brain, and he maybe cares more about Mikasa Ackerman, who reaches out to Levi with a clear goal for nothing but an internal reference. Wait - it all starts with finding a roommate for Eren.

Before Eren wants to explain further, Levi grabs a thick towel and walks into their steam-free bathroom. 

With his laptop on, Eren begins another round of stalking - towards Erwin, the so-called Levi’s coworker… but places his hand on Levi’s waist. On his waist… “Stop of thinking of shit!” Eren mumbles to himself as he pinches himself on the thigh.


	3. The uninvited guest

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Shut the fuck up. Go.” Levi would never think about showing this side of him in front of Eren - that innocent 19-year-old freshman, maybe failing his 6th attempts to date a girl...

People in this dating app use pseudo names. Eren hits the login button after a bunch of preparation work: a newly created random email address, a dumb nickname, a default avatar, and an option to not show his location. 

Bad news. Eren couldn’t find any “Erwin” related guy, thinking he might misspell his name; also, his family name is still a secret. Never mind though, first and foremost, he has to find out what Levi’s profile looks like…

“Creak!” It must be Levi rotating the bathroom doorknob. Thank god, precisely one hour, again. After this long bathing, maybe Levi’s going to grab a cup of tea. Eren held his breath and felt reassured after the stepping sound went farther away. Oh, wait - Holy crap!

A young adult with a poker face. Dark hair. Aged 34. Location is… within 0.5 miles. Eren couldn’t help but burst into a laugh when seeing Levi’s pseudo name - ‘Donut hole’?

“Eren!” Not a good timing, a stepping sound comes closer. “The soap you bought has a different fragrance...” Levi’s knocking on the door of Eren’s bedroom. He sounds a little bit annoyed.

“Uh-huh?” Eren failed to adjust his breath this time, grunts with a dumb noise. “Well, thought you were taking care of yourself. Good night.” Levi steps away. Thankfully… No… Not really. Eren doesn’t believe a guys’ sixth sense, but this time, he feels like swallowing a big chunk of hand soap when seeing this - Another guy “nearby” shows up, right after Eren wiped left (To avoid any trouble, of course) Levi’s profile card on that dating app. How does it come they are both within 0.5 miles, and there’s not a third one at the moment? Well, it’s quite self-explanatory.

Guess Levi would never bother Eren tonight. He and that blonde stranger have something important to do. Half-curious and half-disgusted (Eren’s not sure why), he sneaks out of the room and stands in the living room, astonished.

As he paid much attention to stalking Levi’s Facebook albums, his roommate actually came back home with Erwin. And apparently, they are now both in Levi’s bedroom, talking about the damn “project that’s going to be launched by the end of this year.” Eren is beaten by this sarcastic scene and feels worse watching a thin line of light beaming from Levi’s bedroom door gets shut down… Now here comes a world for adults. Actually quite natural, isn’t it? Anyone, Mikasa, Armin, or even Annie could have been doing something with their newly met partner. “Except for me.” Eren curls his palms into fists, hitting the bar table in their kitchen with full strength. Weird enough, he doesn’t feel hurt, at least, it doesn’t count compared to his clueless sadness coming from nowhere.

Why am I worried about Levi’s private life? For a guy aged 34, it’s acceptable to have some one-night stands with a newly met stranger or simply his upper colleague in the company… There’s one moment Eren just wants to reuse his mischief skills, staining the carpeting floor with all that hand soap with a fragrant which annoys Levi. 

Then he did. 

Somehow Eren feels much relieved after this small action. He can’t wait to see their reactions tomorrow morning. Oh, it’s already passed 12 am. 

It turns out that no one gets a decent breakfast on Saturday morning. Sunlight goes through their half-shut window-shades… 10 am. Eren checks his phone, swiping useless notifications one by one, and - a text message from Levi.

“You shitty brat. About the carpeting, I won’t tell the landlord but, no dinners for you next week.” 

Not really got pissed off that old man, didn’t he? Eren didn’t open that messenger app to reply. He put down his phone, having no appetite to read through the rest of notifications. He must be too satisfied by his one-night stand to punish a useless roommate who caused trouble for him. Just as what Eren thought, in Levi’s room, the tired adult still laid down on his messy bed, checking his phone and repeats. No response from Eren.

“Levi, don’t you think your roommate has found out this?” The blonde guy has already dressed up before an “official” departure. 

“It’s none of your business. Erwin.” Levi simply feels pain in the back as he rolls over to the other side of the bed, looking for some mint to cover his bad breath after a night-long fooling around. “He won’t find out that you are here, but he must be mad at not satisfying me.” Levi’s just talking about the wrong fragrance of his hand soap, but Erwin gets the wrong side of it.

“Oh? You guys have also already done it, right?” Erwin smirks hearing the word ‘satisfying.’ He leans forward, intending to press a kiss on Levi’s forehead but he gets refused by a sharp look. “You naughty slutty -”

“Fuck off. It’s time for you to get going before that brat wakes up.”

“How can you tell he’s not right there in the living room, being mad at you for not spending a good night with him?” Erwin continues his quirky assumption. “I bet mine feels better than his tampon-sized dick…”

“Shut the fuck up. Go.” Levi would never think about showing this side of him in front of Eren - that innocent 19-year-old freshman, maybe failing his 6th attempts to date a girl...

However, Erwin was right. The moment he opened the door, Eren is standing right there in the living room, ready to throw away a bottle of hand soap into the trash can.

“So, you are his roommate.” Erwin doesn’t look bad around this time of the day. He’s in a suit, the same one he wore last night when he went for a dinner with Levi.

“Yeah. You are -” Eren’s mind is totally fucked up. He smiles at Erwin mostly because he’s proud of his detective’s instinct, but deep in his heart, it’s burning like hell. “- Levi’s manager right?”

Although he thought Levi had made such a blatant lie (Who’s hanging out overnight with his direct manager?), Erwin finds no effort to continue that story - “Kind of. I’m a Director of product development.” And he adds “but in a different segment of our company.” That sounds way more legal. Alright, it seems to cover up something. Even though Erwin knows Eren’s not buying it.

“Okay. You’re leaving right?” 

Before anything further awkward happens, like Erwin reaches out his hand to Eren’s, Erwin soon gets the hang of this situation, so he puts on his leathered shoes and walks towards the entrance. “Yes, I’m leaving.”

“Okay. Bye.” Eren’s voice sounds damn dry. He just wants to shut that blonde guy right off the door and have a good cry in the bathroom.

“Well. Bye. And, Levi seems not feeling well. It’s your turn - ” By the time Erwin wants to finish the talk, Eren’s not there anymore. And of course, Levi’s heard all this conversation with the bedroom door open... And he found out someone’s sobbing in the bathroom before the door finally shuts down.


	4. Coming out

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Levi’s touching himself on the… Groin? He looks so weak in front of me… so… annoyingly adorable. Eren’s wholly carried away for a few seconds until gets kicked on the butt. Levi’s laying down in the bathtub, one leg stretching out after the kick, with the hot water filling in to cover his pale torso. “Go and do the cleaning. Or, no cooking for you for two weeks…”

Levi frowns at the smell from the carpeting floor, but he has no spare time to take over this right now. Walking towards the bathroom, he knocks on the door to notify the sobbing boy inside.

“...”  
“Um. I need to use the bathroom.” Levi doesn’t sound fine. “Right now! Open the door…”  
“...”  
“Eren.”  
Levi feels weird, though previously, he took it granted that a 19-year-old college kid would accept a mature guy to have a one-night stand with someone. Now he realizes he is wrong. That sobbing noise doesn’t really stop and bit by bit, it churns Levi’s feeling into a mess.

In fact, the door is not locked. Levi thought it was inappropriate to interrupt by bumping in before he has no patience at all. “Eren. I’m coming in.” 

There’s no light inside. The sad boy squats on the floor, tearing up a scroll of toilet paper, messing up the bathtub and … almost everywhere. He’s facing down, pretending not heard Levi’s voices before Levi drags him up abruptly by grabbing his arm.

“You liar!!” Eren yells at Levi. He never thought to do so, but soon he realizes that is a childish reaction when seeing a hot drop rolling down from the old man’s cheek. 

“I’m sorry,” Levi says so but feels weird, still. He thought he wouldn’t lose control in front of a boy 15 years younger than him. Being emotional is too… unprofessional. However, this short apologize doesn’t fully quench Eren’s anger, as Eren continues to shout, mixed with helpless whining. “Brat. Shut up. I said that I was sorry.” Levi sounds like Levi, who tries to stay calm and stoic as his self-image.

“That guy, he said you seemed not feeling well. Aren’t you?” A few deep breaths after, Eren finally gets a little calmed down. There’s no more guessing between them now. The fact is right there. His roommate, whom Eren might shyly admit he had a crush on, fooled around with Erwin, a colleague in the apartment they shared. There should have been a house rule saying ‘No overnight visitor,’ but it was too late. Levi gazed over Eren’s dimly red face, which blushes even more. Both men look dreary and tired. “Eren. Listen, fuck off that man. Please, we stop talking about him, okay?”

What the hell is that? What did he mean by saying so? “But why?! Now that you don’t seem like… like you have a feeling for that guy, but you still have done... that?… I have no idea of how you did that but…” Eren has never learned, or even just looked up gay sex. He had no idea of it, but to some point, knowledge of sex between man and woman provides a hint on what actually happened to Levi.

“I feel gross too. I’m sorry, Eren.” Levi’s still not feeling that good. Feeling half-guilty and half-uncomfortable physically, he bends over to collect the toilet paper masterpiece in the bathtub before he loosens his pajama. “So I need to take a bath.” Assuming Eren’s already gotten some knowledge base around gay sex, Levi continues. “I need to take care of myself after doing that.”

“Does it… hurt? Um, does ‘that’ hurt?” After that moment, Eren totally regrets what he asked about because Levi slides one finger in between of his groin, groaning “Shit. Don’t look at me at that. Brat, go and clean up the carpeting.” 

Levi’s touching himself on the… Groin? He looks so weak in front of me… so… annoyingly adorable. Eren’s wholly carried away for a few seconds until gets kicked on the butt. Levi’s laying down in the bathtub, one leg stretching out after the kick, with the hot water filling in to cover his pale torso. “Go and do the cleaning. Or, no cooking for you for two weeks…”

“...Ah?! Oh-okay.” Eren feels so reluctant to get out after seeing Levi’s irresistibly seducing appearance. The shift from being frustrated to being… overly smitten. This crush on Levi just has grown stronger, and there’s no going back between this couple of roommates. Not anymore. The carpet still smells terrible, with the wrong fragrance Eren bought last night. He even can’t imagine all this drama has happened overnight. Even though Levi did apologize to him, Eren’s confused about Levi’s choice in hooking up a stranger just to quench… to quench his desire… of getting laid? Levi must be really lonely throughout the two months ever since he moved to the Bay Area due to work relocation. Levi was completely alone. Not sure if he had a partner before, he found a humble apartment by himself, which doesn’t really match his salary as a senior product manager… Am I caring about him too much? Eren asks himself.

With the intention to forgive that annoying old guy (or I will never forgive him for making a one-night stand at our home!!), Eren tries hard to sympathize with his own experience of masturbation. Yes, just masturbation, poor virgin. Eren once laid on his bed, not long before he moved in with this roommate, thinking about a blurry but warm figure to cling on… And he humped the hunch of his quilt, with his legs curling up tightly. Once, and twice, and repeated. He made a pace in this kind of humping until his member beaded a sticky fluid. He didn’t stop doing that, and soon the fabric was soaked with hot cum. Apparently, as he recalled, that blurry figure was not a female, to his surprise... “Levi…” Eren couldn’t help but whine softly in someone’s name. Damn. I’m doomed. Eren bites his lips as the flashback fades away.

It takes Eren about two hours to finish all the cleaning. He doesn’t feel his wrists, so his back does hurt a lot. The poor boy sprawls lazily on the couch until his head gets hit by a freshly-out-of-bath man. “It smells better, brat. The floor, I mean.” 

“Yeah of course… at the price of making myself almost handicapped.”   
“Okay, let’s break the rule for tonight.”  
“What?! Rule?!” That’s totally wrong! So wrong! Eren can’t hide his burning-red face with soaring hormones hitting his crotch. How dare I start thinking of that just because of -

“The rule of not cooking for you.” Levi notices the young boy’s surprising reaction, but he keeps going. “I’ll do another steak meal for us.” He turns to the kitchen, leaving Eren nervously covering his own crotch on the coach. Eren sighed, not sure if he’s relieved or he’s disappointed. However, the awful feeling comes back once more: Eren just cannot get rid of what Erwin had done last night. He cannot accept the fact, never. He starts to hate himself of trying to figure out that damn adult world. “Levi, I’m sorry but, do you have any friends in the Bay Area before you moved in here?” Even though Eren has already known the answer.

Busy in the kitchen, Levi’s voice sounded a little bit faded, but every word from Levi is loud to this curious boy. “No. That’s why I start seeing people. My co-workers are just co-workers, so I meet up with people after work. You should do that too. Otaku-boy.”

“No. I don’t think I’m gonna do it. You know.” Eren pauses and brings up his own dating issue again, “Annie and the other girls have no interest in me. And recently, I found myself actually not into girls.”

“What do you mean?” Weird, Levi’s heart skips a beat, but luckily, he still holds the knife tightly as he slices the tender meat in half.

“I mean, I cannot…” Eren hesitates but as wayward as he should be, he admits - “I mean, I can only get hard by thinking of guys.” ‘Like you’ - and he purposefully swallows the last two words.

Too bold - the way Eren talks. Isn’t he the innocent little angel to me? Levi deliberately avoid this topic already because he merely throws up a pretty random question to Eren like, “How much butter do you want for the steak?”

That smells so good, just like the first night when Levi made steak for Eren - The night when Eren got frustrated by Annie’s not showing up. But Eren’s not frustrated anymore. He’s now more determined in going out of his comfort zone, with a clearer vision of who he wants to be. Fuck off that irresponsible blonde guy. Let me take care of you, Levi. “A lot of butter. I want to taste all of it, but make the steak rare.” 

“...Already made it medium for both of us.” 

“Okay.” 

And the food tastes terrific. As Levi noticed, this brat just cannot move his gaze off of him. The way Eren’s lips move when he enjoys the food: dipping the sauce, feeling the temperature, chewing the tenderness, and when he swallows it… These all make Levi want to see Eren do this to something else, other than this boring steak.


	5. Almost there

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> ...Levi entirely loses control when Eren comes close by, dipping one finger into the hot black tea and touching Levi on his lips. "Give up, Levi." That finger gently thrust in. It feels too hot with the temperature of hot black tea. "Mmmh..." Levi doesn't resist but stretches his tongue to press the movement of Eren's finger.

The following week is peaceful. No more drama about Levi's online dating issues. No more dinner is cooking for Eren but, this brat still benefits from free food brought from Levi's company. No one's complaining anything until Eren's curiosity drives him mad.

Days ago Eren signed up that dating app using a pseudo name in a private profile with location and social links hidden. He deleted this account on the day when Levi looked broken down because of the one-night stand with Erwin. However, Eren grows suspicious since Levi doesn't talk much with him when they are both at home, he hits the "install" button again. Different from the first time he "used" this app, he creates a 'real' profile with a name 'Aaron,' aged 24, majoring in Information Management a local college miles away. Thankfully, this app does not require users to upload a photo if they want to stay with the basic plan, which includes only online chatting, no advanced search for pairing with the ideal mate. 

It's show time. Within a few seconds by filtering by location, 'Aaron' spots Levi, aka 'Donut hole.' He swiped 'like.' Shit - "It's a match!"

A horrible assumption about Levi hits Eren instantly. Only a few seconds, man - the Eren in disguise just got matched with Levi through this app... which means, on the other side of their apartment, Levi's using this app right now. That is too bad - Eren thought. Not only because this old man is still lurking other guys in the neighborhood, no matter who is close to his age, but he seems not taking Eren's madness (about his one-night stand with Erwin) as severe as Eren thought so. Still, soon this unsafety is replaced by the excitement of taking an adventure in knowing Levi as a stranger. Now that they matched, 'Aaron' with that 'Donut hole.' The game's on. 

Eren is a virgin but not regarding his knowledge about sex. Ever since the day he came out (at least to himself and Levi), he's more into tips on gay sex. Being frank to himself, he's been reading and watched topics about 'How to top/bottom,' and if you are a bottom, how to douche your butt. He wonders - I don't think I'd be a bottom but, it seems super fun to make your bottom partner reach orgasm through... fingering in the ass? Curiosity isn't a bad thing, but when Eren puts this into reality, he opens the pandora's box of dirty talks with gay guys on that dating app.

Eren's not the only one who's dealing with expanding his knowledge in sex, some of his classmates like Jean and Connie share some of their findings and experiences if they are lucky enough (Thankfully Eren can have comparatively close friends after two months study). Sometimes, the boys are making fun of each other chatting about girls who they had a crush on. "Do you think Annie is now hooking up with the 3rd guy he met this month?" Connie cocked his head in the group study room, noticing Jean was yawning while Eren had already fallen asleep in front of his laptop. "No idea, but any luck with your crush?" "...Hey Jean, don't talk about me okay? See who's supposed to care about Annie more?" Connie pointed at Eren, who was still fast asleep. Well, Eren's not bothered by that, though he still has no courage to admit he's into boys, publically, to his guy friends. 

One day Eren even decided to tell his concerns about being gay to Armin, who studies in the east coast but still has a catch-up with Eren daily. To Eren's surprise, this smart dude doesn't think it's weird at all. "You are cool, buddy. That doesn't bother me at all... don't tell me you are interested in me! Haha! No offense." Armin burst into, but he seems quite chill about Eren's kind of serious announcement, "Oh right, have you talked to Mikasa about this yet?" This question doesn't ease Eren's nerve. "Hey, thanks, Armin. No, and I don't think she will accept that. She is not like you." Then Armin shared his experience in having friends who have a few sexual partners but not seriously into a long-term relationship. As Armin continued, Eren frowned. "I was confused by that in the very beginning, but later I realized in this fast-paced New York City, you can never tell who's the one to spend your rest of life with if you don't experiment with many." Hearing this, the west coast boy sighed. No doubt he related this saying with the recent incident he's been through with Erwin and Levi. "Hey dude, not sure if now it's the right time to tell you this... I do have a crush." Armin held his breath for one second when hearing this - "A crush to my current roommate. He's guy, a much older guy. Not that old but, he is 34."

Armin doesn't feel sorry about Eren's having an unusual crush. Instead, he's the one who encourages Eren to steps out of his comfort zone confessing to his crush when there's a chance. Eren does appreciate that and using the dating app is one of his plans. The stalker Eren is now turning into a spy. He's more tangible and bolder in talking, which works.

Back to the present, Eren's impatiently refreshing this app to see if the recently-matched-man has sent any message to him. Maybe I should be the proactive guy. If Erwin did that, why can't I? As he decides, Eren greets 'Donut hole' in the name of 'Aaron' for the first time: "Donut hole. I wonder what that tastes like."

"Hi. Just call me Levi, please." Levi's in his bed, lazily and he yawns more frequently when seeing messages like this. That 'Aaron,' 0.1 miles away? Who could be that? Of course, a perv neighbor who might bump into me when he was on the way doing grocery shopping today... Levi doesn't care about the tricks in words, and thus he treats anyone in that dating app like the same person. He needs to be satisfied physically when there's a need. Unfortunately, the last experience with Erwin didn't feel right. The tall blondie was dominant, and the foreplay was awful. Stop thinking of that piece of shit. Levi tells himself, and somehow he pauses that dating app but opens his messenger app, wondering what Eren is doing right now. Strange. Why am I thinking of him right now? "Eren, I need some hot tea. Are you available right now?" He texts Eren and shuts down the dating app.

Meanwhile, Eren's excited in receiving the very first message from 'Donut hole,' but he's suddenly worried about if Levi's found out by text messaging him bringing him tea. To be more careful, Eren replies the text message first, and then he walks to the kitchen, boiling the water. 

Knock, knock. "Come in." Levi sits up when he calls for Eren. The young boy enters his room, with a tray in his arms. "Levi, are you feeling okay?" How could he be so caring? I just asked him to bring tea. Levi's a little blushed. Levi looks so inexperienced - isn't he the one who's hooking up online as a mid-aged mature man?

"What do you mean, brat?" Levi doesn't look he's happy though, but soon he chuckles at Eren's reaction - "I mean, are you still thinking of that selfish blonde man when a pretty young is standing right in front of you?" The angel Eren is now revealing his side of being little evil.

"Fuck that guy. No. Pass me the tea, please."

However, Levi entirely loses control when Eren comes close by, dipping one finger into the hot black tea and touching Levi on his lips. "Give up, Levi." That finger gently thrust in. It feels too hot with the temperature of hot black tea. "Mmmh..." Levi doesn't resist but stretches his tongue to press the movement of Eren's finger. 

"I know you want more of that." The young man smirked, and soon he felt Levi's half-hard erection rubs against him. "Levi is..."

Stop it. I should stop. Eren maybe worries too much, but he's afraid if Levi's doing it just for pure pleasure - which Eren doesn't want it to happen. As Eren withdraws his finger, covered by sticky saliva which drives Eren wild, he tries his best to pause the movement. "Not now... Levi, um... I think I'm gonna back to my room."

Levi remains unsettled and unsatisfied as Eren slams the door, but he doesn't look mad - Eren is still a virgin, I shouldn't blame him for that. After the tea, Levi reopens the dating app. Unfortunately, no one replies him except for Erwin. Levi kind of regrets not wholly deleting Erwin as his contact in the dating app. It's getting weirder when they still have their professional connection in their company profile.

"Levi, I'm sorry for what happened last week. Are you okay? Even though I think you don't expect the next time with me, don't you?" Such a bait. Levi's still hard there thanks to the brat who brought the tea. Trying so hard to constrain his desire, Levi manages to stay cool with that guy - "There is no next time. Thanks for asking."

The other side of the apartment, how desperately Eren wishes Levi can hear himself fapping vigorously in bed.


End file.
